More Cain Velasquez

Biography

TRAINING: I usually train three times a day, so in the morning, around 8, I go lift at Joe Grosso’s Elite Training. At noon, we’ll do our hard sparring, then come back and do jiu-jitsu, and then around 6:30 or 7 I’ll do an aerodyne workout for a half hour.

What ranks and titles have you held? UFC heavyweight champion, Two-time All-American in wrestling for Arizona State, Two-time Pac-10 Champion, junior college national champion for Iowa Central Community College.

What ranks and titles have you held? Two-time All-American in wrestling for Arizona State, Two-time Pac-10 Champion, junior college national champion for Iowa Central Community College.

Do you have any heroes? My parents

What does it mean for you to fight in the UFC? The UFC is the "big show". It has the best fighters in the MMA arena.

Did you go to college and if so what degree did you earn? I graduated from Arizona State with a bachelor’s degree in Education.

What was your job before you started fighting? I worked security for a nightclub.

• History-Maker: First Mexican-American fighter to win a heavyweight title in boxing or MMA

• Uplifting an entire people: Dethroning of UFC champ Brock Lesnar at UFC 121 (Oct. 2010) was watched by millions of people in Mexico on Televisa (Spanish cable). Before the bout commenced, and even in its opening moments, many Mexicans and Mexican-Americans had feared for their hero, wondering how he would defeat such a monstrous and intimidating heavyweight who outweighed Velasquez by a good 25 or 30 pounds. Cain’s win set off an explosion of Mexican pride in homes and bars across Mexico and the U.S.

• Dedicated his title victory to Mexicans and Mexican Americans

• Has said he hopes to be a role model for future Mexican-Americans, noting that he found few Mexican role models to look up to his youth

• Father, Efrain, and mother Isabel worked long hours in the hot fields picking lettuce for meager wages to support Cain and his two siblings. Cain credits his parents with instilling in him an extraordinary work ethic